Massillon Patrol Officer
Eric Taylor
Posted on 08/10/2002 6:07:37 AM PDT by ResistorSister
MASSILLON (OHIO) -- A city police officer and a man he was chasing are dead, killed in a shootout at the old Agathon ballfield Friday night.
Killed were Eric Taylor, 31, a four-year veteran of the Police Department, and a still unidentified suspect.
“This is a major tragedy for our city,” said Mayor Francis Cicchinelli, who announced Taylor’s death at Massillon Community Hospital at about 11:45 p.m.
Taylor was married, with three young children.
Investigators from the Ohio Highway Patrol, Massillon Police Department and Stark County coroner’s office remained at the scene past midnight, as did the body of the suspect, a balding, white man who was driving a four-door Ford sedan with Stark County license plates. His body was covered with one sheet, another blocked the view of the more than 100 bystanders who gathered near First Street and Cherry Road NW.
The trouble began shortly before 8:30 p.m. on Route 21 and Edwards Road in Wayne County near Doylestown, according to Lt. Herb Homan, commander of the Wooster Post of the Highway Patrol.
One of his troopers had stopped the southbound Ford on Route 21 at 8:22 p.m. for speeding. The trooper talked with the driver, there was a confrontation and five minutes later, the trooper reported the car was fleeing. He chased it south, and Massillon police got involved.
The chase ended in Massillon east of Route 21, in the ballfield just south of Cherry Road.
Lt. Gary Lewis of the Highway Patrol said the man got out of his car with a high-powered semiautomatic weapon, and that he fired first at officers. At least three Massillon officers and a trooper were involved in the gunfire. He said they don’t know which officer fired the shot that killed the suspect nor do they know which shot killed Taylor.
Scott McElfresh said he was watching television in his home on Cherry Road, northeast of the scene, when he heard shots. He looked out his window and saw flashes from gunfire.
He estimated he heard four shots and then an additional 30 to 40 shots, and that he saw flashes indicating police were returning fire.
“It’s not something you expect to happen in Massillon,” he said.
Other witnesses said they heard 10 to 12 shots.
“We didn’t know if it was fireworks or gunshots,” said Dave Hodgson, who was with friends about a block to the north.
Stark County Coroner James Pritchard said the suspect died of gunshot wounds, but he won’t know how many until he does an autopsy on the man today. He’ll also do an autopsy on Taylor.
Taylor was rushed from the scene to Massillon Community moments after the shooting.
The suspect’s body remained on the corner of a field off of First Street and Cherry Road until after midnight. Police said they had not verified the man’s identification, and they wouldn’t release his name until family was notified.
Through the early morning, Taylor’s cruiser and the suspect’s car remained in the middle of the field on which The Arena is being built.
The Highway Patrol and Massillon police are sharing the investigation.
They used 44 red cups to mark shell casings and other pieces of evidence on First Street. Bright lights illuminated the scene, showing the back window of a Massillon cruiser was shattered, and glass was scattered across the street.
A helicopter from Columbus was brought in to map the crime scene.
A handful of officers not involved in the investigation showed up at the scene, some in uniform and some in street clothes, somber and stone faced. Family of other officers showed up, patted a couple of officers on the back, shook their hands and hugged them.
A police chaplain met with the family at Massillon Community.
A red tent for officers was pitched in the yard of the Massillon Recreation Center, across the street from the crime scene.
Permit me to second that opinion.
The first rule of holes is that, once you find yourself in one, stop digging...
Heh. That wonderful aphorism deserves its own Far Side-style cartoon!
If someone wants to play this for the race angle, wardaddy, there would likely be scores of blacks from Cincinnati who would give the late Don Matthews a glowing character reference. His radio show was on a black-owned station. He deeply resented the way state and local law enforcement hassled people of color and the economically disadvantaged, and said so. Most of the students in his Cincinnati classes were blacks. Don thought he was helping to empower the underprivileged in our society by teaching them the tools with which they could assert their constitutional rights, and many of these people are grateful to him.
I'm not defending what Don did. I can't for it was wrong, wrong, wrong. But he told me often enough that if he couldn't live as a free man, he'd be a dead man. So I guess he wrote the inscription for his own tombstone.
Wrong. Different cop. Hershey made the initial stop. He is very much alive.
He was probably Conservative. It's usually right-wing religionists who do these things. I can't recall any libertarians shooting it out with the police.
Baloney. Because of his actions, a widow is now "free" of her husband and orphans are "free" of their father. In addition, he has enslaved you and others into a state of grief. That he taught disadvantaged youths to disrespect lawful authority means he did them no big favor.
The coronor said the bullet matched the type but it is pretty quick to already have ballistics tests from Matthew's gun don't you think?
Naw. They're more than happy to cheer on and wink at the cop-killers from the sidelines.
Maybe he's a speed freak. Sheesh.
Well, so far, the official version of events is consistent with the political beliefs of the man as posted on FR, as presented by someone else on this thread. It is fair to await to pass final judgement upon presentation of the complete set of evidence. But nothing I have seen so far gives me reason to question the official version of events, as compared to, say, the Vince Foster matter. Just because government has covered up in the past, it does not automatically mean that they are covering up now...
So in other words, rather than try to defend the indefensible, all you can do here is quibble over a typo.
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